The English modal verbs are often challenging for learnersof English. This happens for many
reasons, including bothgrammar and meaning.

In earlier Hints, we reviewed
uses of may. In this Hint, we'lltake
a look at some characteristics of might.

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Might #1:Present and Future Possibility

We saw in an earlier Hint
that the modal auxiliary might isoften used as a past form for may when (1) a sentence containsindirectspeech and (2) the main verb of the sentence
is in
a past
tense.

Might is also used in other ways, however.
One of them isin showing possibility in present or future time. Both mightand may
are used in this way, but with might,
the degree ofpossibility is weaker than it is
with may.

Examples:

We mightcome
to the party.

(The chances are not high
that we will cometo the party, but it's still
possible that we will.)

I'm not sure
where Frank is. He mightbe on vacation.

(There's a chance that Frank
is on vacation,but I'm not very sure that he
is.)

It mightrain
tomorrow.

(It's not very likely that
it will rain, but rainis still possible.)

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Special
Notes:

1.

silent letters in might

The letters g and h are silent in might: they arewritten but not pronounced.

2.

the pronunciation of
might

Might is sometimes hard to understand because
thefinal t
is often not clearly pronounced. Because of this,might sometimes sounds like my.

3.

This use of might isnot past.

When might is used to show a slight possibility inpresent
or future time (as it was used in the examplesgiven
above), it is not a past form